God’s Word Brings Increase: Revealing the Power Behind John 6

When you take the four Gospel accounts and put them together in chronological order, it really helps you understand the Bible.

You get Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all together, and you can see what happened before a teaching, what happened afterward, and how these things fit together. Instead of taking one verse by itself, you can compare all the Scriptures on the subject.

This is important because Jesus said things that people misunderstood. They heard His words, but they were thinking only in the natural realm. When you follow the Gospel story in order, you begin to recognize this pattern. You also see how one teaching connects with something Jesus said earlier.

John 6 is a great example. Jesus had multiplied the food and fed the people, and now they were following Him. But Jesus knew their hearts. They were saying positive things and making it look like they were committed to Him, but they were following Him because they had gotten their bellies full.

So Jesus began saying some hard things to them. John 6:32 says, “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.”

These people were talking about the manna that Israel ate in the wilderness. They said Moses gave their fathers bread from heaven, but Jesus corrected them. Moses did not supply that manna. God supplied it. Then Jesus said, “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (John 6:33).

They answered, “Lord, evermore give us this bread” (John 6:34). They still did not understand. They were looking for physical manna to come down from heaven. They were thinking about their stomachs, but Jesus was talking about Himself.

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).

Jesus said He was the Bread of Life. He said the person who comes to Him will never hunger and the person who believes on Him will never thirst. This is the same kind of thing He told the woman at the well earlier in the Gospel story.

John 4:14 says, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

When you read these events in their order, you can see that Jesus was teaching the same spiritual truth. In John 4, He used water. In John 6, He used bread. In both places, He was talking about receiving His life.

You know, it is common in the body of Christ for people to say, “Oh, God, I’m so hungry. I’m so thirsty.” If you are using those words to say you are passionate for God and love Him with all your heart, I can accept that. But many Christians live in a constant state of spiritual hunger and thirst, and that is contrary to what Jesus said.

If you are hungry, eat. Partake of what God has already given you. When you are born again, God Himself lives on the inside of you. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Love, joy, and peace are already present in your born-again spirit. You do not have to beg God to do something new. You have to believe what the Word says and draw out what He has already placed within you.

Many people are looking for a feeling. They want a goose bump or some dramatic thing to happen. They are looking for a natural manifestation of God instead of walking in the Spirit. Their flesh may feel empty, but their born-again spirit is full of God.

The people in John 6 had already seen many miracles, but Jesus said, “But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not” (John 6:36). They believed He could multiply food and perform miracles, but they were not willing to accept Him as God. They wanted to use Jesus to satisfy their natural desires.

Jesus went on to say, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).

If you took that verse in only a physical sense, you could say that a person must see Jesus with their physical eyes before they can believe and receive everlasting life. That is obviously not what Jesus was saying. I have never seen Jesus with my physical eyes, but I believe on Him, and God is going to raise me up at the last day.

You have to see Jesus with your heart. You have to perceive who He really is. This shows you how important it is to read Scripture in context. If you pull out one word and ignore the verses around it, you can make the Bible say something it was never saying.

The Jews murmured because Jesus said He was the Bread that came down from heaven. John 6:42 says, “And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?”

They had made a wrong assumption about Jesus. He was not the natural son of Joseph. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. The people looked at Him in the natural realm and thought they knew who He was, but they were wrong.

There are people today who have wrong assumptions about Jesus. You have to make sure that your knowledge of God is based on the revealed Word of God. You cannot base it on what things look like, how you feel, or what somebody else says.

Jesus answered them in John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

You cannot come to God through your flesh. God has to draw you. This is why it is foolish for a person to say, “I know I’m living in sin, but I’ll get right with God just before I die.” You cannot assume that you will come to God whenever you decide you are ready. When God is drawing you, that is the time to respond.

Then Jesus said, “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (John 6:45).

This is quoting Isaiah 54:13: “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.”

This does not mean that everyone will see an open vision or hear an audible voice from God. It means that God reveals Himself to us. Every person who is truly born again has responded to God drawing them and revealing Jesus to their heart.

In John 6:47-48, Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life.”

Notice that He said the person who believes on Him hath everlasting life. That is present tense. Everlasting life is not just living forever after you die. It is not just going to heaven someday.

Jesus defined everlasting life in John 17:3: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Everlasting life is knowing God. It is having a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ right now.

Jesus brought the people back to the manna their fathers ate in the wilderness. That manna kept them alive physically for a period of time, but they eventually died. Then He said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

The people responded, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” John 6:52 says, “The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

They thought Jesus was talking about cannibalism. They were thinking only in the natural realm. Jesus was talking about partaking of Him spiritually, but they thought He meant physically eating His body.

So how did Jesus respond to their misunderstanding? He made it worse. He said they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood or they had no life in them. He did not apologize, back up, or soften what He had said.

I tell you, this is amazing. Jesus knew that those who were being drawn by the Father could receive what He was saying through the Holy Spirit. The people who were operating only in the flesh would be offended.

You can see this same problem earlier in John 3. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Nicodemus answered, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” (John 3:4).

Nicodemus thought Jesus was talking about a second physical birth. Jesus was talking about spiritual birth. The woman at the well thought Jesus was talking about natural water. The people in John 6 thought He was talking about natural bread and physically eating His flesh.

This is one of the differences between God and people. We tend to look at everything in the natural realm, but Jesus was speaking about spiritual realities. When you read the Gospel accounts in order, you can see this pattern. It helps you understand what Jesus meant.

Then Jesus gave the key to the entire passage in John 6:63: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

The word quickeneth means “makes alive.” If these people had ears to hear, they could have understood that Jesus was not talking about cannibalism. He was speaking in the spiritual realm.

Jesus said His words are spirit and life. This is so important because you cannot see your spirit with your physical eyes. You can tell whether your body is hot, cold, tired, or energized. You can tell what you are thinking and how you feel emotionally. But how do you know what is true in your spirit?

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

That verse is not talking about your physical body becoming completely new. It is not saying that your mind and emotions instantly become perfect. The part of you that becomes new at salvation is your spirit.

The Bible shows you what is true in the spiritual realm. If I want to see what my face looks like, I have to look into a mirror and trust the reflection. If I want to see what my spirit looks like, I have to look into the Word and trust what God says.

This Bible is a window into the spiritual realm. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

You may not feel blessed with all spiritual blessings, but you cannot go by how you feel. You have to take what the Word says. The words Jesus speaks are spirit, and they are life.

Many of the disciples in John 6 would not receive this. “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” (John 6:60). Then John 6:66 says, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

I believe this was one of Jesus’ finest hours. He did not flinch. He was not controlled by public opinion. He said what His Father told Him to say, and when the crowd left, He was still standing there just as dependent upon His Father and just as confident.

Jesus turned to the twelve and asked, “Will ye also go away?” (John 6:67). He did not force anybody to stay. He had shown them love and performed miracles that revealed who He was, but He would not coerce them.

Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Peter may not have understood everything Jesus had said, but he knew there was nowhere else to go. Nobody else had the words of eternal life.

Then Peter said, “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69).

That is the kind of commitment we need to make. We need to burn our bridges behind us until there is no such thing as retreat. Even when we do not understand everything, we stay with Jesus. There is nowhere else to go.

Take time to read the Scriptures in their setting. Follow the events in order, and compare the Gospel accounts. Notice how Jesus introduced a truth, repeated it, and then explained it. You will understand passages better because you will see the whole picture instead of one isolated statement.

Jesus is the Bread of Life. His words are spirit, and they are life. “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47).